Continuing today's smorgasbord of announcements and revelations, market research firm The NPD Group has pulled back the curtain on its monthly report, revealing January 2010's top-selling console games and hardware figures for the United States.

In all, the overall U.S. video game market was down 13%, pulling in $1.17 billion compared to January 2009's $1.34B. Across the various segments, hardware saw the biggest drop, coming in at $353.7M--down 32% over January 2009's $446.8M. Read more »

We reported NPD Group's list of 2009's top-selling games just a few days ago, but IndustryGamers has released a list of the top-selling games according to the NPD dating back to 1995, when the group first began tracking sales data.

IndustryGamers notes that the list of games has been compiled by title, rather than individual SKU's, meaning that sales for all platforms are lumped into a single result for multiplatform offerings. This makes the appearance of the three Wii-exclusives even more impressive, though it's also worth noting that Wii Play, Wii Fit, and Mario Kart all come bundled with peripherals. In Wii Play's case, it came packaged with a Wii-mote for only about $10 more than it would cost to buy the controller by itself, a fact which surely had a positive impact on sales. Read more »

Compiling the various sales figures of its monthly reports, marketing research firm The NPD Group has issued its take on the best-selling games at U.S. retail in 2009.

In all, the United States video game industry brought in $20.2 billion during 2009. Read more »

A whopping 82% of children aged 2-17 in the United States, some 55.7 million, are gamers, according to a new report from marketing research firm The NPD Group.

The breakdown sees gaming most popular among ages 9-11, a demographic that accounts for 12.4 million, and least popular between ages 2-5 at 9.7 million, with 51% of the total "kid gamer" market playing games online.

Meanwhile, the 12-14 demographic spent the most time playing games at 10.6 hours per week, with males aged 9-14 being "more inclined" to play games online. Read more »

Sony recorded one of the biggest wins yet for the PS3 with system exclusive Uncharted 2 capturing the top spot for October sales. And it was a resounding victory too, beating out second place Wii Fit Plus by nearly 18%. Basketball fans also made their presence known pushing NBA 2K10 to an overall win with combined sales between the 360 and PS3 version putting it ahead of Uncharted 2, 575,000 to 537,000.

On the hardware side of things Nintendo continued its domination of the raw sales figures selling 506,900 Wiis and another 457,600 DS handhelds. Despite selling a respectable 320,600 pieces to put it in third place, PS3 was unable to maintain the momentum from the September launch of the new Slim model with sales down when compared on an average per week basis. Xbox 360 likewise saw a similar decline but Wii, DS, and PSP all trended up from a month before. Read more »

NCsoft's fantasy MMO Aion was the biggest PC seller at retail in September, according to NPD's new data for the month. EA Maxis' The Sims 3 and Cryptic's superhero MMO Champions Online rounded out the top three.

On the order of more recent sales data, Left 4 Dead 2 captured the top spot on the Steam sales list last week, edging out Gearbox's just-released Borderlands and BioWare's upcoming RPG Dragon Age: Origins. Check out both charts below. Read more »

Sony had a big month in September, with the PlayStation 3 claiming the top spot in console hardware sales for the first time, according to NPD's US sales data.

"Compared to last September, the PS3 was the big winner, more than doubling last year's sales," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier. "This portrays a very strong consumer reaction to the price decrease as August and September both realized a lift of more than 70% over the prior month." Read more »

Bungie's stand-alone Halo 3 expansion topped the NPD sales charts in September, beating Wii Sports and Madden NFL 10 by a significant margin with over 1.5 million units sold.

Also notable was the performance of The Beatles: Rock Band, which clearly beat Guitar Hero 5 sales on Xbox 360 despite launching nine days later. The Wii version of The Beatles also came in strong, selling enough units to claim the tenth place on the list. Read more »

Madden NFL 10 was the best-selling console game in North America over the month of August, though sales of this year's title were down when compared to NFL 09.

EA Sports' title sold nearly 1.9 million units across various platforms, while NFL 09 did better than 2.1 million in its opening month last year. The drop reflects a slow season for video game buying, with the industry seeing another year-over-year drop in sales in August--this time to the tune of 14%, according to NPD. Read more »

The videogame industry continued to struggle in July, posting $848 million in total US sales, a 29% decrease in overall sales compared to the same month last year.

Interestingly, only publishers Electronic Arts and Nintendo made the top 10 in software sales. Wii Sports Resort sold over 500,000 units, while NCAA Football 10 pushed over 600,000 units across the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

July's top 10 software: Read more »

Research firm The NPD Group will no longer release its weekly charts of the ten best-selling PC games at United States retailers to the media, the company has confirmed with Shacknews. It will still issue monthly PC sales charts to the public, though, with the entirety of the sales data, as always, available to NPD's paying clients.

No reason was given for the switch, though we've asked for more details. Back in 2007, the company opted to stop publicly releasing its monthly sales figures and listings for consoles, though it quickly reversed that decision following public outcry. Read more »

Given that The Sims 3 sold over 1.4 million units at launch, it's little surprise that it topped not only the weekly PC games sales chart but overall PC software sales too.

Digital distributer Direct 2 Drive also saw a glut of Sims 3 sales, including a flood of Mac edition sales. Over on Valve's Sims-less Steam, Left 4 Dead has risen to claim the top spot unperturbed by the E3 announcement that Left 4 Dead 2 is coming November 17. Read more »

Research group NPD's list of the 20 best-selling PC games in May shows mostly the usual players--Blizzard and Maxis--in their usual comfy chairs, slightly rearranged.

Spore climbs five places following a $10 price cut, while StarCraft 2's imminent beta no doubt plays a hand in the StarCraft Battle Chest's rise of two spots. Outsiders Left 4 Dead and Empire: Total War manage to retain their lofty positions from last month. Read more »

THQ's mixed martial arts hit UFC 2009 Undisputed reigned supreme over the North American console software charts in May.

The fighting game--developed by Japanese studio Yuke's Osaka--recorded over one million sales between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, which placed first and fourth place on the list, respectively.

Read more »

At long last, digital distribution outlet Steam has joined NPD and Direct2Drive in providing weekly sales data, providing for a wider view of the PC gaming landscape.

Of course, there's a twist. Steam lists its weekly sales by revenue, instead of unit sales, so comparisons between NPD's retail charts and D2D's downloads aren't valid. Regardless, it's more information than we had before, which is always nice. Read more »